NASA has been flirting with a number of private firms in the hunt for a company that could offer the U.S. an option in getting its astronauts back into space by the end of 2016. It looks like one such company will be ready for a test flight by as early as next summer.
Pictured above is the Dream Chaser, a seven-seater space plane that's one of the crew vehicle hopefuls in the running to be the next space shuttle. NASA initially invested $80 million in the craft, and just tossed another $25.6 million at it, lining it up for a test flight next year.
And guess who will be helping make that test flight a reality? None other than the private spaceflight paragons over at Virgin Galactic. While Virgin Galactic is focused more on space tourism and less on industry, the company's WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft is the perfect fit for taking the Dream Chaser up toward sub-orbit. It's a good example of how the private sector can offer NASA a more robust infrastructure to pull from.
You've heard it all before: right now the only option the U.S. has in sending crew up to the International Space Station is the Russia's Soyuz rocket. Roskosmos is NASA's biggest partner incompleting the ISS — and also handles a lot of the resupply missions — but sending crew up with the Russian space agency costs NASA $50 million a person, according to Reuters. The shuttle fleet wasn't that much cheaper at an estimated $450 million a launch.
With private industry, by NASA's own admission, spaceflight will only get leaner and cheaper, and hopefully that means bigger and better things for not only NASA but the space exploration efforts all the world over.
Via Reuters
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